Digital BW, The Print

Hi Marco,

I'm the one who created those curves. Others have also reported back to 
me that they seem too dark in the shadows, but here 95% on the stepwedge 
is actually a bit lighter than the same stepwedge printed with Paul's 
curves.

I don't have an explanation for this except that one of my inks may be 
configured incorrectly or that my printer is behaving differently than 
others.

Fortunately, with todays release of QTR with profiling you can now tweak 
your own curves. You can even linearize using your own scanner if you 
don't own a densitometer. See my separate post on this.

--
Daniel Staver
http://daniel.staver.no



Marco Ristuccia wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> A week ago I received from MIS the UT7 full ink set for my Epson 
> 2100 (with ebony black).
> Before receiving this set I usually print with Epson UC standard 
> inks and QTR on EEM paper.
> 
> As soon I printed a test image with UT7 and Roark Neutral EEM Curve 
> (following the workflow) I noticed that the shadows areas are much 
> lighter than the QTR ones. Indeed the overall image seems less 
> contrasty then the QTR one.
> 
> In order to make some side by side comparison I decided to:
> 
> 1)
> Print a 21 step test pattern with QTR (QTR Gray Matte profile, UT7 
> curve 50% cool and 50% warm).
> 2)
> Print the same test pattern with PS8 and Roark Curves (EEM Neutral 
> one).
> 
> According to my firs impression I noticed 2 things:
> 
> 1) Linearity
> QTR closes shadows too much (the last two step, 95% and 100%, are 
> almost the same full black). To my eye it seems that from 55%-60% 
> level the gray curve begins to go down much faster than the rest 
> part.
> The gray curve of the print made with PS8, Roark Curve and Epson 
> Driver seems perfectly linear. The 95% and 100% steps are well 
> different (mybe too much). To my tastes I would prefer a little more 
> contrast and deeper shadows than this.
> 
> 2) Dither pattern (seen with an enlarger lens)
> QTR has much better dithering pattern. Dots are wery wel diffused 
> without some visible pattern.
> The print made with PS8, Roark Curve and Epson Driver shows too much 
> aligned points (quite like a micro-banding). This is visible also to 
> a naked eye.
> 
> In conclusion, I will go with the Epson Driver if there were a way 
> to change dither algorithm of the Epson Driver. Is there a way to do 
> this?
> Or do I have to edit/recreate the QTR UT7 curves to correct their 
> shadow closing problem and go with it?
> 
> Have you suggestions?
> Have you also noticed those thinhs in your own tests?
> 
> Thanks in advance